ISTANBUL (TURKEY) – When Friday prayers will once again be held inside Hagia Sophia, it will be the culmination of Islamic groups’ decades-long efforts to convert the monument into a mosque. The centuries-old monument is sacred to both Christians and Muslims.
Yunus Genc’s Anatolian Youth Association (AGD) had staged protests and prayed outside Hagia Sophia demanding reinstating its mosque status. Another group undertook a series of legal campaigns which met with failure until a top Turkish court issued a verdict in their favour.
Shortly after the court verdict, President Tayyip Erdogan declared the building – which was a Byzantine-era cathedral for 900 years before it was occupied by Ottoman conquerors and used as a mosque until 1934 – a mosque and the first prayers are to be held this Friday.
His decision was slammed by Church leaders who said the act risked widening religious divisions. However, the government said the structure would be open to visitors and its Christian artworks would be protected.
“We struggled for this for years,” Genc said in front of the mosque, which is characterised by a huge dome, buttresses and four minarets.
“Hagia Sophia is a symbol and we, like all Muslims, wanted it opened as a mosque…When Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror came to Istanbul he bought Hagia Sophia with his own money as a symbol of the conquest, endowed it and wanted it to be a mosque.”
Genc’s outfit is an offshoot of the movement founded by the country’s first Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan. His political party was the forerunner of Erdogan’s AK Party which has been in power for 17 years.
During his tenure, Erdogan has remodelled secular Turkey, which was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, by lifting the ban on Islamic headscarves in public, promoting religious studies and taming the military, which was once the stronghold of the father of the nation’s secular values.
In the midst of trouble in the Middle East since 2011, Erdogan has sought to place Turkey as a regional power and champion the cause of the Sunni Muslims.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field
